11/16/17: Hulu cancels Difficult People

Good morning. It’s Thursday November 16, 2017 and this is your your first early morning Digital briefing.

TODAY’S CODEBREAKER

Baseline: A baseline is an established level of normalcy. In digital marketing, the word often refers to the normal number of unique visitors that visits a website per day.

JUST IN…

T-Mobile’s merger talks with Sprint may have fallen through, but the latter telco is taking a page from its rival’s playbook. Under a new partnership with Hulu, subscribers to Sprint’s Unlimited Freedom plan will have access to Hulu’s ad-supported SVOD service – usually a $7.99 monthly package. The offer takes effect tomorrow, November 17. T-Mobile has a similar offering in place with Netflix, and AT&T has one in place with HBO.

Looks like Kickstarter wants to compete with Patreon. The crowdfunding company has launched Drip, a new service that lets users support creators. Whereas Kickstarter’s existing service enabled users to contribute to individual fundraising campaigns, Drip will let them donate regular contributions to creators. To start, the service has 61 creators on board, including the National Observer and podcaster Debbie Millman. Kickstarter has some catching up to do: Patreon, which offers a similar service, is already being used by thousands of creators.

PROGRAMMING

Hulu just made a difficult decision with Difficult People. The comedy series has been canceled after three seasons. Difficult Peope was created by Julie Klausner, who starred alongside Billy Eichner. Amy Poehler served as an executive producer. The three existing seasons will continue to live on Hulu.

Netflix has ordered its second Italian-language scripted series. The show, called Baby, will focus on teen prostitution in Rome. Production is slated to start next year. The Italian company Fabula Pictures is set to produce. The cast and directors haven’t been announced yet. Netflix’s first Italian series, the mob drama Suburra, debuted last month. The company has also announced plans to release Juventus FC, a docu-series about the Italian soccer team of the same name.

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

Let’s see your team’s prosocial initiatives!

The 4th Annual Cynopsis Social Good Awards

Cynopsis is recognizing excellence in the area of social good in the TV, entertainment and digital media industry. From sustainability partnerships and PSA’s to diversity campaigns and environmental initiatives, this is your opportunity to showcase your efforts and inspire others to do the same. Entering is easy!Just login to our submission portal here, enter a brief synopsis and pay for your entry.

Pixar is out with its first-ever VR experience. A companion piece to the upcoming feature film Coco, Coco VR lets users explore the land of the dead using a skeleton avatar. (Like the film, the VR experience is based on the Mexican holiday of Día de Muertos.) At the moment, Coco VR is exclusive to Facebook’s Oculus Rift headset. It’ll also arrive on the Oculus-powered Samsung Gear VR headset next week, in time for the movie’s November 22 premiere. For a look at the trailer, hop on down to the Short Form Spotlight section.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Can’t make this stuff up. Former Google and Uber exec Anthony Levandowski has founded his own “church,” which is devoted entirely to artificial intelligence. In an interview with Wired, Levandowski discussed his efforts at length for the first time. Called the Way of the Future church, it’ll have its own gospel (simply called The Manual), as well as public worship ceremonies. The premise of the religion, he said, is that sometime in the future, A.I. will be smarter than humans – and will, for all intents and purposes, become a god. Levandowski picked an interesting time to found an A.I.-centric religious movement: He’s currently being sued by Google. The tech giant alleges that he helped Uber steal the company’s self-driving car technology.

You don’t need to join a church to learn more about A.I. Just sign up for the upcoming Cynopsis webinar, Using Artificial Intelligence to Capture & Captivate Audiences. A.I. is one of the most useful tools available to TV networks, marketers and publishers – and it’s only becoming more important. Now’s your chance to learn how to implement A.I. technologies into your own efforts. Panelists will include Al Ming of Scripps Networks Interactive and Dave Neway of IBM Watson Advertising. Register here.

OTT + SVOD

Time Inc. is launching its first-ever subscription VOD service. Sports Illustrated TV, a $4.99-per-month service featuring licensed films and original content, debuts today on the Amazon Channels platform. At launch, SI Now has 130 hours worth of movies and documentary films, including The Bad News Bears and the first five Rocky films. It also features some original talk shows and docu-series. In addition, SI TV has reached deals with the sports filmmakers Mike Tomlin and Jonathan Hock, who will create two different sports documentary projects. Those projects are scheduled to hit the platform in the first and second halves of 2018, respectively.

CYNOPSIS BUYERS & PLANNERS AWARDS

Procrastinator’s alert… the deadline to nominate yourself (or a colleague) in the annual Cynopsis Buyers & Planners Awards is tomorrow! It’s free to enter and in 3 quick steps you’ll be done: http://ht.ly/KO8330grSPN

APPS + PLATFORMS

As part of a new holiday promotion, consumers who buy a $99 gift subscription to the FilmStruck movie service will also receive a free Roku Express streaming device. FilmStruck is managed by Turner Classic Movies, in partnership with the Criterion Collection. The new promotion ends December 31.

RESEARCH

According to estimates from Leichtman Research Group, Sling TV gained 240,000 customers in Q3. The Dish Network-owned live TV service became the first “virtual MVPD” service back in 2015, but it’s now one of many on the market. Q3 wasn’t all good news for Dish. According to Leichtman, its traditional satellite TV business lost 224,000 subscribers. Dish has said only that it gained 16,000 U.S. customers during the quarter; the company doesn’t distinguish between Sling TV and its satellite TV service in its quarterly reports.

MEASURING UP

Tubular Top Ten Global Sponsored Videos Monday, November 6, 2017 – Sunday, November 12, 2017. Based on Tubular Video Ratings measuring 8 million video publishers, 3 billion videos, and 400 million viewers. Sponsored videos are ranked by V3, total views in the first three days after upload.

SHAREABLEE SOCIAL TV RATINGS: Top 10 U.S. Primetime and Streaming Shows for November 6 – November 12. Based on Shareablee’s Video Power Index (VPI), which combines viewing, consumer interactions and audience scale across all active platforms, and includes the video performance of primetime and streaming shows.

Source: Shareablee Inc. The total actions metric includes the total volume of post-level likes, shares, favorites, retweets and comments across social platforms.

– Love reigned supreme during the 51st Annual CMA Awards, which were broadcast on ABC. Aside from tapping out loads of comments of adoration (in particular about host Carrie Underwood), viewers sent tons of messages talking about how beautiful the celebs looked.

– The 2017 MTV EMAs (Europe Music Awards) received the most congratulatory messages during the period measured, with Shawn Mendes being a hot topic after he was awarded Best Song, Best Artist, Biggest Fans Award and Best Canadian Act.

– The 300th episode of Grey’s Anatomy on ABC was packed with allegorical tributes to times gone by and past characters – and it had fans in tears the whole time.

– NFL fans went crazy when Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton went for a 69-yard run in the game against the Miami Dolphins that was broadcast on ESPN.

Follow-up: Who co-created Gossip Girl alongside Stephanie Savage? (Email trivia@cynopsis.com with your answer and be sure to include your name, company, city and state.)

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

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